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Bungie Explains Destiny’s Mysterious Third Subclass Slot
We recently visited Bungie to talk with the developer about Destiny’s first expansion. We came away with some extensive details about what’s on the way in The Dark Below, which are chronicled here. We also quizzed the developers about some of the big questions surrounding the game, like the issue of non-skippable cutscenes, and the way exotic bounties affect the competitive experience; you can read Bungie’s responses in this month’s magazine issue. We also asked lead designer Tyson Green about the often rumored third subclass slot on each guardian’s character screen, and he clarified what’s really going on there.
“I can’t say anything about new subclasses,” Green says. “The reason why there’s that third subclass slot there, is that some people may recall that we used to have a mechanism for sealing a build and locking your choices in, which would give your build a boost. The game would let you make another copy of that build. That’s what the slot is there for. When you needed to make a copy of your arc titan build because you just locked the other one, we had to make room for that. So that’s why the third slot is there. It shouldn’t be read as a tacit promise, but the fact that subclasses are swappable should make players excited about the future.”
Sure enough, Green’s comments line up with the early version of subclasses described to Game Informer in our cover story back in our January 2014 issue. At the time, subclasses were called focuses, and the idea was that you might have multiple copies of the same focus, but each one might be a slightly different locked build. The newer (and arguably, better) system allows for regular customization of your subclass build.
It sounds as if Green and the rest of the Bungie team definitely haven’t crossed off the potential of a third subclass for hunters, titans, and warlocks at some point in the future. However, the current visualization of that empty slot appears to be a relic of a previous version of the game.
Our Take
Just last night, I was in a raid with some players who were discussing rumors they'd heard about the third hunter subclass, and how cool it is going to be. I'm as excited as anyone by the potential for a new subclass to fill in that last energy type on each of my guardians. An arc warlock would be really fun to explore, but it doesn't seem as if it's on the way anytime soon.
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